SureSet resin bound surfacing makes a major contribution to the landscape at Northumbria University city campus
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Originally renowned for its strong industrial background Newcastle has now become a vibrant city with numerous and diverse cultural activities and many new buildings of architectural merit. Recently added to the list is the new City Campus East development at Northumbria University.
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SureSet were proud to have been associated with this project and to have their materials incorporated in many areas of hard landscaping. Lead landscape architects, SLR Insite, was sufficiently impressed with the surface treatments potential and versatility for it to be used extensively to help fulfill a brief that read 'provide an imaginitive and contemporary landscape setting that is both flexible and adaptable to respond to the charging needs of the university and to promote its status as an international learning centre'.
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 Within the main campus area 4,033mē of 6mm Forest Green/Sterling Silver mix have been laid within pedestrian access areas and also as part of a central feature depicting left and right sides of the brain. A further 10mē of Sterling Silver have been used elsewhere with 42 Tree Pits having been installed as well, using 10mm Sterling Silver.
The project also incorporates a new bridge crossing the central motorway, allowing students and local communities access to the existing City Campus. A striking aspect of its design is the utilisation of SureSet to create the words, 'Northumbria University' within the footpath. To achieve the required results, MDF stencils were prerared using a laser cutter, metal edging was then formed into position around the stencils to create the characters.  At the same time the MDF was then removed and the characters were filled in with Forest Green SureSet. They were then transported to site where the background of 6mm Sterling Silver was then laid up to them.
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The third element making use of SureSet is a landscape 'make-over' for ellison courtyard, an area within the original City Campus. Here a mix of 6mm Forest Green and 6mm Sterling Silver blends from each end to give a 50/50 mix at its central point. 10mm Sterling was used for Tree Pits. To quote the university:'the new Ellison Courtyard provides a high quality 'oasis' within the heart of City Campus to be enjoyed by the entire University, community, visitors and others alike'.
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For SLR Insite the choice of materials had to balance the competing demands of sustainability and longevity and to this end SureSet was able to source much of its raw material locally. SLR Insite Project Manager, James Brewer commented:"We were looking for a really hard wearing and bright aggregate finish and SureSet gave us this, and some really crisp edging/ I'm really proud with the result and students often comment on the unusual Northumbria lettering".
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Cityscape Review
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 Another successful show at Cityscape cemented its place at the top of our exhibition calender. And with the continued partnership with Warrens Display to build our stand, SureSet were able to offer more assisstance to the impressive 'Streetscene' feature stand.
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 The central feature stand was designed by landscape architects Whitelaw Turkington for the exhibtion organisers and built by Skanska McNicholas. With the assisance of SureSet and other exhibitors an impressive 'Streetscene' was created in just a few days.
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SureSets contribution involved laying some paving around the outside, which required about 40mē of 6mm Charcoal and five 6mm Wild Lavender strips down the centre of the stand. The most impressive area came in the form of two bridges, which were installed, by SureSet, with about 50 fibre optic lights shining through 15mm of 6mm Clear Frost (recycled glass). The effect worked really well and is a service we will look at offering with  the partnership of a fibre optic supplier very soon - call now if you are interested.
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The show itself seemed even more popular than last year, attracting many visitors from architects to local authorities. Sales Manager Vicoria Newton commented 'It was really good to talk to so many new people who were so keen and involved with the development of sustainable projects', she added 'they nearly all seemed suprised that our material offered a permeable solution to work as part of a SUDS system.'
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Next up on the exhibition calender is Grand Designs Live at the NEC, Birmingham which is in October - see this space for more details closer to the time.
SureSet Newsletters
 February 2008 - Summary
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As part of the regeneration work taken by Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, SureSet paving has been installed on some renewed pathways and parking areas.
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Sculptor Anthony Wilson, from Heytesbury, Wiltshire, has used SureSet to create a giant frog sculpture from recycled materials at London Zoo. | 
